Good Morning All. 59° and partly cloudy here. Busy day yesterday after church, not only did we visit the Kroger store, but made a trip to Dollar General, Home Depot, and four other stops! Lunch and a nap followed. However since it drizzled all day, I went straight to the train shed later, then it cleared up and I was able to grill burgers for supper.
OK Flo, a bear claw and glass of orange juice. I don't do coffee!
Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday;
Chet,
Phil,
Joe,
Jim,
Garry,
Sherrel.
Took advantage of the extra time in the train shed and added some more scenic items to the current scenery project. A little ground foam here, a little there, and spent an hour adding weeds. Moved over to the workbench while all of that was drying and added a sign to the wood kit that I had earlier painted.
Structure to the right is intentionally painted a different shade as might be seen on an addition to the original structure.
The effect that I am trying to achieve is an aged sign painted on the wall. After drying, I'll sand it thinner in a few more spots so the underlying wood color shows through and then weather it with several shades of weathering powder.
Dave - I find that bracing laser-cut wood structures in the opposite direction of the wood grain, makes assembly easier and eliminates any and all warping. Bar Mills supplies five or six pieces of 5/16" stripwood in every kit for that, although they don't explicitly show every instance where it would be helpful. I tend to add more especially since I use acrylic paint for most things. Despite priming everything ahead of time, I have seen unbraced parts warp from the paint. For wood, I just use Elmer's white glue. Easier to correct if something slips or I make a mistake.
Funny that you mention the OSHA railing. I had OSHA training for over thirty years including 30 hour certification (twice). I still use their specifications when I scratchbuild hand-railings, steps, ladders, etc or add mandated safety features to many structures.
Joe - I hear you on the photo editing. I can crop or change size, but haven't mastered removing unwanted objects. Probably could if I wanted (or had time) to sit down for a couple of hours and experiment. But like many other things on the computer, after the desired results are reached, I probably won't remember how I got there.
Greg -
The second phased of stringing utility pole wiring has been completed
Pictures? My experiment stringing real .015" metallic wire was an almost complete failure. The look was very realistic but I couldn't get the kinkiness out of the wires. I have a spool of EZ Line that I will use on them when I revisit that project. I actually drilled .020" holes in all of the insulators and I need to remove the AC glue and unstring what I did. Or I could just drill the six insulators on six new poles.
You posted about living near rail lines. I used to work about a mile from an intersection of three rail lines. At lunch in the 70's, I would go and park in a gravel lot about 150' away and watch UP on their north/south secondary line (Dallas/Denton), Frisco (SLSF) on SW/NE main line (Dallas/Sherman), and the Cotton Belt (SSW) on their east/west (Dallas/Ft Worth) connector line. Lots of traffic back then. SSW also had a freight yard to the east and they regularly blocked the junction drilling that yard. All of this trackage still exists today, BNSF operates about thirty trains a day through there and DGNO either owns or leases the rest, which is all still active.
Beady - How about a picture or two of the Lego structures? My 35+yo nephew has over 1000 Lego sets and has 1/3 of a three car garage devoted to them.
Two signs that spring is actually here on the SFW estate. The hummingbirds have returned to use the feeders, and it's still daylight when I go to bed! Still waiting on the third sign when the snakes come out of dormancy.
Everybody have a great day and a wonderful week.